INTERCONTINENTAL UNION ACTION RAISES TERRIBLE POSSIBILITIES FOR ALL…

By TESTCustomwebLP TESTCustomwebLP
April 6, 2011 20:54

Short-sighted and downright stupid union leaders are threatening to wage a campaign of intercontinental “guerilla warfare” against Qantas operations around the world if the airline replaces union labour with managers in the event of a strike by airport ground staff in the coming weeks.

Paddy Crumlin, the Maritime Union leader and president of the International Transport Workers Federation, has revealed that the federation’s executive board would convene in London next week to map out a major campaign against Qantas that could include industrial action at airports in Britain, Europe, Japan and the USA. Union leadership has described the move as “guerilla warfare” with action potentially including picket lines, go-slows by baggage handlers servicing Qantas flights at international terminals and union protests at check-in counters.

Crumlin said the campaign would galvanise aviation unions across the globe to take action at every airport at which Qantas operated. “The potential damage to the Qantas brand name is absolutely enormous,” Crumlin told the press in Australia. He said the campaign would be activated if Qantas brought in managers to replace striking members of the Transport Workers Union. The TWU has threatened industrial action by baggage handlers, ramp handlers and catering staff unless Qantas agrees to its claim for job security clauses curtailing the use of cheaper outside labour.

Does anyone get the feeling that unions in some areas of the globe are getting a bit too active? This move by the unions is nothing short of industrial terrorism, a move that will result in great loss for its own members if it goes ahead. The unions are out of control in Australia.

So as Qantas braces for a war with the unions or a tricky negotiation at best, we have to acknowledge the fact that unions across the globe, weakened over the past two decades, are now reaching out and speaking to each other to get their way using global reach tactics. It is of course BA management in the UK that will have the key to the stiff drinks cabinet in their hands at this moment. They will be praying that Qantas does a deal because any action coordinated with the UK unions will undoubtedly open a Pandora’s box in the ongoing dispute between BA and the fractured Unite union and could lead to similar intercontinental threats. If Qantas go to war with the unions then other airlines will be dragged into the storm with few international boundaries.